Do you ever have that feeling you are being watched?

I have an edgy suspicion that there is someone hanging around in this site who shouldn’t be there.  I don’t mean reading it – I mean hanging around in the back office here where I write all my shit.

For some strange reason, a lot of people seem to think this site is a good place to try out their hacking skills.   They managed it once a long time ago and created a rather nasty mess so I have been slightly paranoid ever since.  I have installed all sorts of trip wires that ring little alarm bells if someone is trying to open any locked doors.

One of those trip wires that is very active is a little yoke that counts the number of times someone tries to enter by guessing my password.  It’s the electronic equivalent of trying a bunch of keys in the front door in the hopes that one will fit.  If they try more than a couple of times, they are politely told to fuck off and are thrown off the property.  If they sneak back in and try again, they are given an ASBO and a pet kitten is nailed to their front door.  If they still don’t get the message, then any time they try to access this site they will end up in the FBI site in Merka.

This morning none of the trip wires had tripped.

I tried to log in.

“You have two remaining logons left before you are locked out”.

What the fuck?

I very carefully typed in my user name and my password.  Knowing that this laptop suffers from Keyboard Dyslexia I took great care to check each letter as I typed.

“You have one remaining logon left before you are locked out”.

SHIT!

My first thought was that someone had managed to sneak in and change the locks.  I had a look around the outside but everything seemed to be quiet.  There were no obscene messages on the front page or anything like that; not that anyone would probably notice any extra obscenities?

I was in a spot.  My password obviously wasn’t working and I only had one try left before being packed off to the FBI, never again to darken the door of this site.

Luckily I have a little back way into the site.  It consists of a series of steel doors each with a high security lock.  I got in.

The first thing I did was to hack my own account and I managed to change my password to an industrial strength one.  It was a horrible one to remember before, and now it’s fucking impossible, so this may be the last time I manage to write here.  [If anyone is looking for me, I’ll be scribbling on the FBI site instead.]  I checked all the files and to be on the safe side I copied in a set I had been keeping for emergencies. I could find nothing unusual.  The contents of the filing cabinets were neatly stored away and not scattered around the floor, like you see in films.  It seemed to be just as I left it.

Very fucking strange.

I still have an uneasy feeling though.

I must add a few more trip wires.

But first I had better remove the kitten that’s nailed to my front door.